I (45M) am a Royal Navy Admiral. The recent battle with the German High Seas Fleet off Jutland ended in something of a disaster. There's some suggestion that my actions might have caused this, but if I accept this, it would seriously damage my career. Here's a brief run-down of the problems:

• Before the battle, I gave instructions to increase the rate of fire in the fleet; some of my subordinates may have interpreted these as me telling them to take fewer precautions in explosive storage. During the battle, three of our ships exploded, while my own was only saved due to quick thinking and brave action. The reduced precautions certainly contributed to the explosion. However, surely our ships were too lightly armoured? They only took a few hits before exploding, which shouldn't be possible if the ships were properly designed. It wouldn't be hard for me to push the blame onto the designers of the ships, so should I?

• During the battle, there were frequent breakdowns in communication within my part of the fleet. The member of my staff responsible for these communications made a lot of mistakes, and is clearly to blame for these. However, I did pick him for his political connections rather than his skills. The fact that I wasn't giving him the clearest orders probably didn't help either. We were also operating with a unit seconded from the main fleet. I didn't meet the commander of this unit to explain the differences in procedure and communications between the main fleet and my part of it. Even so, all he had to do was follow my instructions, and use his own initiative at times. Really not hard.

• I've gained a reputation as a hard-charging, active commander, always in the thick of the action. However, during the battle, I was forced to withdraw a bit from the action, due to all the ships that blew up. This wasn't my fault, it was the right choice in the situation. Letting this get out, though, would ruin my reputation, and might well force my resignation.

I know my senior officer will back me up on the first of these, while my wife and friends will support me in the other two. As Britain's best naval commander, I should clearly not besmirch my reputation - my country needs me, after all! But would I be too much of an asshole for doing this?